Samson & Delilah (1950)
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VHS Movie Reviews of Samson & Delilah (1950)
Movie Review: Samson and Delilah
Summary: 3 Stars
De Mille, with God as his co-maker. In general, the plot follows the bible story, though Victor Mature's Samson, costumed in terry leotards and a montrous wig, bilious and flaccid, as though he couldn't pull down the papier-mache temple. He does it, though, and he (his double) wrestles a moth-eaten lion and crowns several extras with the jaw of an ass. Hedy Lamarr was in general considered too old for the role of Delilah (Lamarr was thirty six at the time) but when De Mille couldn't get pitiful Gail Russell for Delilah (she always arrived on set drunk) it had to be Lamarr, who's Delilah, with her slurry German-English would be more at home in a Yorkville Bar than in a high-tone Philistine residence. All in all, the film does not enhance the glory of De Mille or his Associate; its splendors are purely in the camp division. Among the supporting cast are George Sanders, as the head man of the Philistines, Henry Wilcoxon, looking as nobly baffled as ever, and Angela Lansburry in a brief role as Delilah's sister, for whom Mature yearns, to the inexplicable despair of Lamarr. The sets are wonderously cheasy. Paramount. Color.Movie Review: "SAMSON" BRINGS DOWN THE HOUSE!
Summary: 3 Stars
... Audiences who saw "Samson and Delilah" as well as the later "Ten Commandments", really thought that the Bible was being brought to the screen accurately and faithfully. In this respect, DeMille was a genius for making a "sucker" out of the public, along the same lines as P.T. Barnum. DeMille had such a flair for the melodramatic and an uncanny ability to mix sex and religion that he fooled, and continues to fool, the public to this day.... Apart from a few of his early silent pictures, like "Male and Female" and "Joan the Woman", DeMille's sound biblical epics are just trash. They are big, colorful, loud and usually filled with special effects and gigantic set-pieces, such as the crashing of the Philistine temple. Yet the acting in all of these films is without depth and is stilted, hammy and pretentious. "Samson and Delilah" is no exception. It does entertain in spite of itself. What is worrisome is that people still watch this and other of DeMille's biblical films and believe they are faithful to scripture and history. They are not; they are simply HUMBUG!
Movie Review: Oh, Delilah!
Summary: 5 Stars
Cecil B. DeMille is good, Victor Mature is good, but I'm giving this film 5/5 stars for one reason and one reason only, her name is Hedy Lamarr. She is simply hot ... the devil indeed! It is clearly beyond a doubt now that DeMille had incredible Hollywood connections! Who else could get a woman, any woman, in these kind of costumes in 1949 and maintain a G-rating? With that said, allow me to say that this film is indeed a Biblical classic. It is bathed in a magnificent blend of colors, and displays pageantry on the highest of levels. Despite the pomp and circumstance, the film still gets it's Christian message of morals across, and in the end this is what it's all about. For the film, 4/5 stars. For Hedy Lamarr, she can hardly receive enough stars.Movie Review: "Samson" and DeMille
Summary: 3 Stars
When "Samson and Delilah" was released in 1949, Hollywood was on the edge of its big Biblical boom, pictures like "The Robe" and "Salome". Cecil B DeMille had been doing this stuff for decades -- his original "The Ten Commandments" in 1923 and his "The Sign of the Cross" in 1932 -- and the fact is "Samson and Delilah" is a lot more entertaining than DeMille's "The Greatest Show on Earth", which won the Best Picture Oscar a couple of years later. Church groups made it a mission to the movies to see this two-hour epic version of the story that takes up three chapters in Judges. But this is not the Bible, this is Stories from the Bible, in comic book colors. I know, be nice, but I'm afraid DeMille took himself veeery seriously. His trailers often had him pontificating like an avuncular professor about Moses or Andrew Jackson or Charlton Heston. However, the contradiction in his films -- the Bible-thumping one minute and sniggering suggestions of sex the next -- make him seem like a carnival barker, selling an all-healing elixir before bringing out the burly-Q girls. I'm afraid it reveals a basic contempt for his audience. After 35 years, critics had become a little weary of DeMille's modus operandi; his 1956 re-make of "The Ten Commandents" was described by Playboy as "run-of-DeMille". The title roles in "Samson and Delilah" are played by Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr. I have never understood Mature's hunk status. His physique was not half as impressive as that of Burt Lancaster, who was originally set for the role. All Mature's musculature seems to have gone into his face, and when he tries to emote it's a little alarming. Much more impressive physically is Hedy Lamarr as Delilah. She was one of the most beautiful women ever to appear on the screen, but unfortunately she simply couldn't act. Hedy could take E=mc? and make it sound vacuous, and her habit of staring out of camera range makes one suspect she was addicted to cue cards. Of course, it could have been worse. Evidently DeMille wanted Betty Hutton for the role. Betty Hutton?? Why not Judy Canova? The picture was touted as a spectacle, but as such it's spotty. The fight with the lion is impossibly cheesy: in long shot Samson is obviously not Victor Mature, and in close-up, the lion looks like it should be splayed on Clyde Beatty's living room floor. More fortunate is the Valley of Sorek sequence. Delilah's opulent tent and her sparkling pool set amid ruins might have been designed by a Beverly Hills landscape artist. Maybe they were. (Edith Head designed Delilah's costumes, and to say they are eye-popping is an understatement.) The climax, of course, takes place in the Temple of Dagon. By this time Delilah is hopelessly in love with the blinded Samson, and it is she who leads him to the great pillars holding up the temple. (You won't find THAT in Judges!) The destruction of the temple is one of the great spectacles in cinema, even by today's standards. This was long before digital effects, so I assume the illusion was achieved with minatures and double exposures. When the dust clears, we find the young Saul (Russ Tamblyn, of all people) mourning Samson before trudging off to future royalty. An Irish kid as king of the Hebrews. The philistines be upon thee, indeed.Movie Review: AN EPIC OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS!
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the greatest films ever made, "Samson and Delilah" stands out as a crowning achievement in Biblical epics, the trademark of legendary director Cecil B. DeMille. The story of Samson, the strongest of men, felled by the temptress Delilah is brought to the screen in majesty and splendor. Victor Mature is wonderful in his role as Samson, bringing a sense of humor and humanity to the role. Hedy Lamarr nearly overwhelms the brilliant Technicolor with her ravishing beauty as Delilah, sleek and seductive. As Delilah's sister, Angela Lansbury fares well in her brief role as do George Sanders (as a subtle ruler of the Philistines) and Henry Wilcoxon (as a military governor). And the actors are only one ornament to the production. The art direction is masterful and incredible. And the costumes... such gorgeous opulence and splendor were never seen since, sometimes almost stealing the scenes from the actors. Both categories won 1949 Academy Awards, giving Oscar's gilt to this classic. The film is immensely entertaining and superbly directed with reverence to the sacred texts by DeMille (at 128 minutes, dramatically shorter than DeMille's "Ten Commandments". But the special effects are one of the best reasons to see the film: Mature's three-minute fight with a lion, to the unbelievabe climatic scene in which Mature pulls down a temple of stone. A classic all the way through, "Samson and Delilah" is a film that you will never tire of, and always want to see again and again...I now quote the film's final words: "Men will tell his story for a thousand years." And if it lasts that long, men will watch this movie for a thousand years.